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Another female accused of faking cancer

He rented her a wheelchair, took care of her children, made calls to 911 when she collapsed, and spent nearly every moment of their two-year relationship worried it would be their last.

When Rick learned the woman he had wanted to marry had been charged with making fraudulent claims about her terminal illness and collecting donations from the public, he was in shock.

“I had cried 20 times a day not knowing if today was the last day I was ever going to see her,” said Rick, who didn’t want his last name published.
Lana Rovang, 32, has been charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000, one count of fraud under $5,000, and one count of uttering a forged document. She is expected to appear in court on Wednesday.

Police said the single mother of two children allegedly made multiple claims to her employer and people she knew that she had a terminal heart condition and stage-four breast cancer, even providing a fraudulent doctor’s note to her employer. Private fundraisers were held in her honour, raising about $20,000.

But a member of the public became suspicious of the woman’s claims and contacted police in July. An investigation was launched and Rovang was arrested by RCMP in Kelowna, B.C.

“She was very committed to convincing people that she had these conditions,” Const. Patricia Ariss told reporters last week. “She was very committed to her cause.”

When reached by phone on Tuesday, Rovang said she was advised by her lawyer not to speak to reporters.

“I do want to make a comment to the press but I guess it’s not quite the time yet,” Rovang said. “I definitely have a side. My side is definitely not the way that is being portrayed.”

Rick said his ex-girlfriend’s stories were believable, convincing and consistent, and not once did he suspect a thing.

He said they met in 2010 while walking their dogs at Southland Park, now Sue Higgins Park, and started dating that summer shortly after exchanging contact information.

From the beginning, Rick said, Rovang was open about her health issues, that she suffered from a heart condition, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, or ARVD, and didn’t have long to live. Medical ports punctured her body leaving marks and scars, he said.

He said she told him her two daughters were at risk of the same disease.
Though he believed their time together would be short, he embraced life with Rovang and cherished moments spent with her and her children, whom he adored, he said.

“We’d even talked about marriage,” he added.

Their fond memories included making bets on who would say “I love you first,” a poem she penned for him, getting engraved rings, and making a garden ornament with their names and the date of their first date etched in cement.

But their years together were also fraught with tense and frightening moments, he said.

Rick recalls the day he panicked when she suddenly slumped over in her wheelchair during a walk in Fish Creek Provincial Park.

“Tears were pouring down my face.... I’m trying to call 911.”

Rick said Rovang was also overtaken by strokes, adding they parted ways shortly after a particularly bad stroke made her lose her memory.

After their breakup, Rick said he remained in touch with Rovang, and continued to help her financially.

“I wasn’t in love with her, but I still loved her. Her fight, her strength,” he said.

By then, he believed she was now battling breast cancer as well, he added.
This past summer, he and several friends helped organize the Love for Lana fundraiser at the Riverstone Pub, the bar he owns with several partners.

About $12,000 was raised from ticket sales and a silent auction, which included some of Rick’s personal items, he said.

The FunFlex Playcare, where Rovang worked, also held several fundraisers, including an event where about a dozen staff members shaved their heads.
Rick said Jan. 7 was the last time he had heard from Rovang. When more than a week had passed without a word, he became worried that she had passed on. Out of the blue, he said, she called him from Kelowna, saying she was ashamed.

He said she then sent him a string of text messages explaining what had happened — that she had spent a week in jail, that she was facing three counts of fraud and 14 years in prison.

With every subsequent text he received, Rick said he started to question everything he thought he knew about Rovang.

“Everything is just going through my mind,” he said. “I need some answers.”
Police have declined to comment on the details of the case.

Rick said some people might snicker at him or question how he could be so naive, how he missed the warning signs. And looking back, he said he sees there were red flags: he never saw any pill bottles bearing her name, and she would never let him accompany her to the hospital for her treatments.
Now, after having spent a few days reflecting on the charges and allegations, Rick said he’s awash with emotion — guilt for roping his friends into the fundraiser, sadness for Rovang’s two children, empathy for Rovang if she had experienced some sort of traumatic experience in the past.

“I’m not going to let it break me. I’m not going to let it change who I am. I’m not going to have distrust of anybody. I’m not losing faith in humanity,” he said.

A "wellness" guru who shot to fame after claiming she cured her terminal brain cancer with wholefoods and natural therapies has admitted she never had the disease.

Belle Gibson has confessed in an interview with Australian Women’s Weekly: "None of it's true."

"I don’t want forgiveness. I just think (speaking out) was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, 'OK, she's human'."

The 23-year-old's "wellness" empire, which included a best-selling mobile phone app called The Whole Pantry and a website and recipe book of the same name, is now foundering in the face of a fierce public backlash over her hoax.

Questions were already being raised about the blogger's claims when it emerged she had failed to donate thousands of dollars to charity she had promised with the cash raised through her success.

Gibson then revealed she had been "wrongly" diagnosed with other cancers she claimed to have including in her blood, spleen and liver, but continued to maintain her brain cancer was real.

She also refused to show journalists medical records or any proof to back her claims she had healed her brain cancer through diet and natural treatments alone.

The Women’s Weekly interview is the first time Gibson has spoken to the media since her cancer claims began to unravel.

"She says she is passionate about avoiding gluten, dairy and coffee, but doesn’t really understand how cancer works."

Many of her millions of online followers have turned on her, feeling betrayed by her false claims, while critics argue she has put genuine cancer sufferers in danger by suggesting diet alone could successfully treat them.

Gibson is now being investigated by consumer affairs, while Apple has stopped offering her app for download, and Penguin has halted publication of her recipe book.

Meanwhile, the website news.com.au, which appears to have obtained more of the Women's Weekly interview, said she fails to explain in detail why she had lied about her condition but refers to her "troubled" childhood.

Gibson, who has been in hiding since her lies were exposed, says the public backlash against her has been “horrible”.

“In the last two years I have worked every single day living and raising up an online community of people who supported each other.

"I understand the confusion and the suspicion, but I also know that people need to draw a line in the sand where they still treat someone with some level of respect or humility - and I have not been receiving that," she is quoted as saying.

Her false illness claims date back to 2009, when she claimed on an internet forum to have undergone multiple heart surgeries and to have died on the operating table.

The media has also faced criticism for running articles about Gibson without checking her claims.